[chandler-users] Is Chandler the Successor to Lotus Agenda?

Sun Mar 23 15:58:21 PDT 2008

<snip>

Like Mark Weiss and (undoubtedly) many others on this list, I've been 
eagerly awaiting Chandler as the reincarnation of Agenda.  Although 
I've played with a few releases over the years, I haven't committed 
myself for two main reasons: (1) Chandler doesn't auto-assign new 
items, and (2) there are so many bugs.  I do realize that Chandler is 
arguably no buggier than any new software, and I acknowledge OSAF for 
addressing Chandler's bugs publicly.  But auto-assignment is 
essential for me, because my work is so unstructured (and arguably 
unstructureable).

Anyway, I'm not a programmer, so this may be a silly question, but 
why has it been so difficult to implement auto-assignment in 
Chandler?  Did it just become a non-priority vs calendering and 
collaboration?  Or was there something about running on DOS (which 
was barely more than a file loader) that facilitated doing 
auto-assignment in Agenda?

And truly, thanks for all your work.  I'm still eagerly (and 
optimistically) awaiting Chandler 1.0.

At 12:45 PM 3/23/2008, you wrote:

>Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
>Davor,
>
>Thanks for the response.  I too used Agenda and then Ecco Pro.  I 
>switched to Ecco after the company  I was working for at the time 
>adopted the Windows 3.1 platform.  We were having problems running 
>Agenda from Windows.  If I remember correctly it crashed a lot.  I 
>moved away from Ecco after I purchased a Phillips Velo to replace my 
>Zaurus.  I couldn't sync the Velo to my Ecco data.  I switched to 
>Outlook about that time.
>
>You mentioned you were still using Agenda for some 
>applications.  Can I ask if and how you either print of export the 
>data?  I tend to write a lot of notes for my three businesses and 
>community activities  that I am engaged in.  Currently I have a 
>folder of paper notes looking for a searchable home.  The notes are 
>tasks and are not time/date driven.  I Googled "Lotus Agenda" a few 
>weeks ago to see if people were still using it.  That's how I found 
>about Chandler.
>
>Agenda would be the perfect solution for my application but I am 
>reluctant to use it if I can't print or export my data.  Any 
>thoughts on how you address these issues would be most appreciated.
>
>Thanks!
>
>Mark
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: chandler-users-bounces at osafoundation.org 
>[mailto:chandler-users-bounces at osafoundation.org] On Behalf Of Davor Cubranic
>Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2008 1:21 AM
>To: Chandler users
>Subject: Re: [chandler-users] Is Chandler the Successor to Lotus Agenda?
>
>Wow, has it really been that long since that announcement?
>
>But I agree, that's what first led me to Chandler, too. And there was a
>lot of Agenda in Chandler initially, reflecting Kapor's influence and
>those announcements, and actually there still is, underneath the UI.
>(See its data engine, with Items, attributes, and relations. I
>sometimes wonder if Chandler's UI could be ripped out and the engine
>used to re-implement Agenda's features and focus.) But calendaring took
>on more prominence with time, and collaboration has had as high a
>priority as personal information management as long as I've been
>following the project. Those are not bad things, either -- the way we
>use computers today is way different than what we did in the DOS years.
>
>And while Chandler is not Agenda, it still works well for me and I use
>it daily as my main information manager. It's better for keeping track
>of tasks, events, and to-dos than for pure information tidbits, so I
>still have some files that I started, and still maintain, in Agenda --
>they just don't translate that well to Chandler's work model and UI.
>Ditto with other tidbits that I still keep in EccoPro (esp. my address
>book!). But honestly, I don't know of another open-source calendaring
>or information management project that works better. (If you do, let me
>know. :-)
>
>Davor
>
>On Saturday 22 March 2008 18:48:47 Mark A. Weiss wrote:
> > Thanks Davor.
> >
> > I was searching Lotus Agenda and found Mitch Kapor's weblog from
> > 10/18/02 where he wrote:
> >
> > "The product, which is central to the whole undertaking, is a new
> > take on the Personal Information Manager. It will handle email,
> > appointments, contacts and tasks, as well as be used to exchange
> > information with other people, and do it all in the spirit of Lotus
> > Agenda, about which more here and here. Agenda, for those who aren't
> > familiar with it, was a DOS product I designed (along with Jerry
> > Kaplan) in the late 1980's which introduced a new kind of database
> > optimized for entering small items of information in a free-form
> > manner, and then adding organizational categories on-the-fly. It was
> > much beloved by a few, despite (or perhaps because) being abandoned
> > by Lotus."
> >
> > That search led me down the path to other postings that tied Agenda
> > to Chandler.  OSAF changed direction somewhere down the line.  It's a
> > shame because an open source program with Agenda capabilities would
> > be an incredible asset.  I imagine that many of the current Agenda
> > users would find it valuable too.
> >
> > Anyway, thanks again for your help.
> >
> > Mark
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: chandler-users-bounces at osafoundation.org
> > [mailto:chandler-users-bounces at osafoundation.org] On Behalf Of Davor
> > Cubranic Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2008 8:07 PM
> > To: Chandler users
> > Subject: Re: [chandler-users] Is Chandler the Successor to Lotus
> > Agenda?
> >
> > On Saturday 22 March 2008 15:52:21 Mark A. Weiss wrote:
> > > Thanks for the response.  I am not a programmer, just a plain old
> > > end user.  If the ability to parse information to categories on the
> > > fly is not a core part of Chandler's features, why the talk about
> > > it being the successor to Agenda?
> >
> > I don't think I've heard anyone from OSAF make that claim in the last
> > five years, if not longer. See blog.osafoundation.org for their (I'm
> > just a Chandler user, too) current vision and direction.
> >
> > Davor
> > _______________________________________________
> > chandler-users mailing list
> > chandler-users at osafoundation.org
> > http://lists.osafoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/chandler-users
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=
Jim Cook <jimcook at panix.com> 

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